Restroom Laws – An open letter to all people required by the law to attend school
February 25, 2010 in Uncategorized by Brandon R. Farmer
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I encourage copy and distribution of this letter. Download a printer-friendly copy of this letter in PDF format here.
To all who are required by the law to attend school:
Do the policies in your school demand that you ask permission to be allowed to use the restroom? If so, you are working under tyranny. It is time for change.
The power is in your hands to change what surrounds you. The school system has no control over you because the choice to obey is always yours. If you want to make lasting changes, though, you need to work together in large numbers. If you and only a few other people choose not to obey, the faculty will try to intimidate you and your family until you obey or get expelled while the policies remain. However, if you and many other people choose not to obey, the faculty will change their behavior and the policies so that the school doesn’t fall apart. The school cannot afford to stay open without the support of many of its students because your participation represents money.
The most effective thing you can do to change the restroom policies is to never ask permission. You don’t ask to sneeze, blink, or scratch an itch — why would you ask to empty your bladder and bowels? The policies demand you to ask permission so that you don’t miss an important part of the lesson, and so that you don’t disrupt the class. There is a fundamental problem with these policies: they don’t trust you to be a human capable of making educated, respectful choices. Instead, they assume that you are ignorant, disrespectful, and unchanging. Security may also be a reason, but your school is not nearly as secure as many people have been lead to believe.
You are fully capable of understanding what is important to you in the lesson, and you likely know how to respectfully leave the classroom. You are the only person who truly knows when you need to use the restroom. If the faculty tries to “punish” you, then they are being disrespectful to the fact that your body doesn’t run on a clock. Also, they are ignoring that you don’t need their lessons to be a successful human being. Enforced, systemized education usually holds you back from your true potential. The current school system is an industry designed to standardize you, but there are no standard people.
If you want, you can eventually destroy the school system as we know it and replace it with something you want. Education is very important because it empowers you. The present school system cannot fully empower you because you are demanded to attend whether you want to or not. By working on a simple matter — restroom policies — it will be easy for you and many people to agree on the same thing and act on it quickly. After you organize, don’t worry about being one of just a few people courageous enough to start the change. Once others see you do it, they will follow. There are leaders for every cause.
Non-violent non-cooperation is the key. No matter what anybody tells you, do not give in. Ignore them if you have to. If you are asked where you’re going, tell the truth. If you are told to stop, keep going. If your family punishes you for it, you still don’t have to obey. If your family is physically violent towards you, find somewhere you can be safe. Don’t worry. As this movement grows, you will find more support. You might have to push hard in the beginning, but many hands will make light work.
Talk to each other. Set a particular day or week to start. Spread the word as much as you can. Stick to your goals. Never stop.
Respectfully Yours,
Brandon R. Farmer
I encourage copy and distribution of this letter. Download a printer-friendly copy of this letter in PDF format here.
The issue of teenage responsibility is taken into account nicely in this letter. Teenagers can be responsible, and when they are shown by their parents and by society that they are worth being trusted and are even further trusted as being responsible than parents and society automatically set up a teen’s feelings of self worth. Respect also comes into play within this intricate relationship, because as children and especially teens learn that their parents and society trust them the teens automatically feel like they deserve respect and then in turn the teens learn to treat the adults and society members respectfully back. This is a hard subject because if children learn they are not to be trusted to do any thing by themselves from a very young age from their parents than schools have to pay the price with rebellious, disrespectful children that don’t know how to function independently in society. So truly Parent Classes should be required and funded by the Federal Government, since the government is the one holding the money in society. I would like to think in this day in age the government would care about creating a strong, responsible, independent young nation, instead the gov. spends loads of money on subsidaries to companies, etc, etc… Sincerely Runningwater Rollin -hope I didn’t make to many typoes.
You are asking all students to pick a new battle. Some students battle just to get up and attend school. Some students battle to keep awake in class. Some students battle to learn enough to pass their classes. Is this new battle the best place for them to place their energies?
At birth we have no responsibilities. As we grow we gain more and more responsibilities. Parents, schools and society are in the difficult position of deciding when each young person should be given more responsibilities. Young people are in the difficult position of wanting more responsibilities yet not always being able to use them wisely. If the driving age (another responsibility) was made a year younger most students would find that an advantage, but a few would die or kill others.
You are certainly right, if all students were given more responsibility most would use their new found responsibility reasonably. But what if a few didn’t? What if they took the opportunity to leave class because they were bored or just didn’t care. Do you think they would more likely be helped or harmed by their new responsibility? What responsibility do you have to the few students who would be more likely harmed than helped by your proposal?
Certainly your proposal indicates your desire to contribute to society. Is this proposal the best way for you to make society better?
Dear Ken,
Thank you for your input; those are all very important questions, and they come up in my mind every day.
Indeed, I am asking all students to pick a new battle, and to focus on the same one together. If students are battling to get up and attend school, battling to keep awake in class, and battling to learn enough to pass their classes, then there is clearly something fundamentally flawed with the expectations made for them. Certainly there are some students for whom the school’s standards seem to be rather compatible with their needs, but if any student cannot find the standards compatible, then they are not being properly served by a system that offers promises to empower them. Everyone has things in common with each other, but nobody can truly be labeled as ‘standard’. The modern compulsory education system is an attempt to standardize people with prescribed skills, knowledge, and values, but as we have often seen throughout history, people vary widely in the skills they can take on, the knowledge important to them based on their abilities, and the values they formulate based on personal and cultural experience. Such a form of standardization sounds valuable to a society that desires efficiency, but it is simply not an efficient practice to give members of a society tools that will not properly aid them in contributing the best of their capacities to their community. The new battle I am proposing is the best place for all students to put their energies because for the majority, their energies are currently being misused on trying to get by in a system that does not foster their individual maximum capacities. In essence, I am proposing that students stop accepting the inappropriate tools they are being given to work with, and act on empowering, non-violent solutions. In my ‘Restroom Laws’ letter, I am proposing that students stop accepting the tool they are being given of sacrificing the wellbeing of their bodies and minds for the sake of a few moments in a lesson that hold far less significance in their lives, until their freedom of personal choice is granted to them. As a solution to act on, I suggest exercising responsibility and politely leaving the classroom to use the restroom when the student feels that their need to relieve themselves is more important than what is happening in class at the moment. If the majority of students hold true to my proposal, it is likely that they will learn some things about organization, communication, and teamwork, and they will have a better idea of how to pick the next battle, and thus they can start to systematically dismantle whatever tools don’t work and replace them with working ones as necessary.
It is likely that a few students will abuse their new responsibility and leave class for reasons that are truly disruptive to their own prosperity, and potentially to the prosperity of those around them. If a student leaves because they were bored or don’t care, the particular educational environment is not suitable for that student at that time or maybe ever, and so efforts need to be made to help the student find something that will empower them to exercise the fullest of their capacities. After leaving the classroom, if the student does not have a direction towards something better, they are more likely to be harmed than helped by taking on this new responsibility, and so it will be the responsibility of their community to offer solutions, whether it comes from the wisdom of peers, parents, teachers, or even law enforcement officers if the situation truly calls for it. The modern compulsory education system is generally not prepared for the fact that the relationship between age and rate of development is not the same for each person, so there are many students in educational environments that are too advanced or not advanced enough, or even irrelevant when matched to the student’s personal development. If there is any reason — aside from illness, emergency, etc. — that a student chooses to not participate in a class, or even school, they have not been given the proper environment matched to their development. If that environment doesn’t exist, it needs to be created. For the students who are more likely to be harmed than helped by taking on the responsibility that I am proposing, my responsibility to them is to advocate for them and their community to pay attention to the student’s personal development (ie. skills, knowledge, and values) and provide tools that will foster empowerment to their own capacities.
I have a strong desire to contribute to society. When much of our youth — our future — is not being truly empowered by the educational environments they are subjected to, danger is on the horizon for our society. Students are currently being trained that it is acceptable to devote much of their energies, five days a week, six and a half hours a day, plus extra time at home, to performing tasks ill-suited to their development. Society’s future looks very dull and unproductive with a prospect like that. My proposal is the best way for me to contribute to society because most adults have become obedient to laws, social stigmas, and habitual values to the point that they fear causing change, therefore it is up to the students to move the community into action, and unless someone points that out, nothing is going to change until something breaks in a very harmful way. The movement that may be started by my proposal will not be directly responsible for the few students who get hurt in relation to it, but rather it is our society that is responsible for creating a situation that calls for such drastic measures and many lose ends to be tied up. Virtually no truly righteous movement has gone forward without someone getting hurt, but that doesn’t make the movement bad, but rather the circumstances that made the movement necessary.
Again, thank you for your input, I truly appreciate it.
With much respect,
Brandon R. Farmer